How did you get on?

[Crystal Bend]

Very good hook the B560 for Roach.
Used them on the Shannon feeder fishing one September in a Sz12 & 4 Floating Maggots on a Open End Paternoster Rig with a 1mtr Tail and never missed a bite or lost a Roach on them.
The B711 is also a great hook for Perch worm fishing and some people use them for Chub.

 

[@Clive]

I had an afternoon on the Charente today. It was forecast to be 15C, bright sunshine , but a cold easterly wind. For once they got it right.

I left home around 11am and took a detour to avoid traffic jams on the normal route. I came to a road closed sign with a deviation sign pointing back down the road I had driven up. I used my initiative and took another route that lead me to another closed road. And another. Five closed roads to negotiate before I ended up on the autoroute further along than where I normally enter.

After picking up some bait I got to the riverside track to find it flooded and closed. The river is over its banks and I had intended fishing one of the boat canals that lead to and from locks. The one I intended to fish is around 100 yards long, but I couldn't get to it. So I drove to the next one down that is at the end of the old town quays. That was just above the water line, but only about 30 yards from where the river was barrelling down. I had a float rod and a feeder rod and started with the latter. The boat canal was about 20 yards wide and ten foot deep. I put on a Drennan maggot feeder, worm bait and cast almost to the far side. Nothing touched the worm so I tried maggots and sweetcorn for the same result. An old chap set up next to me with two pike rods and a pole. He didn't have any bites either.

I swapped to a small cage feeder and put some chopped worms and worm soil mixed in with the groundbait. Just after 3 hours fishing the quiver tip moved a quarter of an inch. I struck and landed a bream of no more than one ounce. I tried a soft pellet for the two last casts and eventually gave it up as a bad job.

I decided to take the hit on the way back and gamble on the roadworks route. 25 minutes stuck in stationary traffic watching lorries from all over Europe go past in the opposite direction. So far it has taken five years and €130m to partially construct a 19km dual carriageway that will get me to the Charente a lot quicker. But not yet.

 

[chevin4]

Following a couple of productive barbel trips on the small stream I dusted down the P1 and Baitblaster rods and went pike fishing for the first time this season last week. I went on Wednesday on the eve of storm Ciaran after early rain it turned out to be quite a pleasant day with intermittent sunshine. There was a nice SSW wind blowing along my bank but dispite trying a couple of swims I only finished up with a small jack which was taken on a float paternostered dead roach not much smaller than the jack. The plan was to fish until 5pm as I pack up fairly slowly I should normally miss the worst of the traffic through Milton Keynes and the M1. I was on the phone to a friend telling him what a decent day weather wise it had been he retorted that it had been pretty dismal all day in Bishop Stortford where he was working. No sooner had I finished the call and a mini storm blew up it only lasted 15minutes but it was enough to soak everything which would mean having yhe tedious job of drying everything off grrrr. Certainly it was a day to forget.

 

[nottskev]

A warm, sunny afternoon and a bite every cast; you wouldn't think it was November. The river had dropped 4' since Monday - I was surprised to see it drop so quickly - and I put my box down in a spot that was under 3' of water last time. It's the mooring for boats coming out of or destined for the workshops, and I had to wait a bit while barges coming or going churned the water to a foam. But it's 10' - 12' deep and fish in a marina are used to boats, so I wasn't bothered

The water had dropped and cleared, so I expected the roach to be trickier and the pike more active, and so it proved. I was just lifting my plummet off the bottom under the rod tip when the tip jagged down and my rig came back minus a few inches and a plummet - first time I've had a pike take one.

Fishing the usual way - hemp and tares out for the roach, maggot down the side for the perch - I was pleased to catch a nice perch first cast

But it proved the only one of the day. Fortunately, the roach were on the seed baits straight away, and tares do catch a better stamp. When I fish caster to try and get both the roach and perch, I find I catch too many small roach, hence feeding and fishing two swims with different baits.

The roach were much more active in the clearing water, and I missed countless bites and chased them up and down in the 10' deep swim. My tares were a bit mushy (old man's problem?) and that didn't help as I had to hook two or three to get one to stay on. Still, lovely afternoon's fishing

 

[Hugh Bailey]

Such a great session!

 

[Pete Shears]

A frosty start but clear skies and brilliant sunshine at the local canal feeder reservoir yesterday. Se t up the three deadbait rods, sat back with a coffee in dazzling sunshine as two more members arrived and set up on the opposite bank.
The first sign of interest was on the sprat rig but the fish fell off in a weed bed - it felt only small though. Set up a lure rod with a silver toby casting long into the deeper water and bouncing it off the bottom until it hit weed only.
After a few more coffees and recasting the deadbaits I resumed casting the toby and it was grabbed on the second cast by something solid a long way out which was staying deep and not responding to the pressure,I began to think I had foul hooked a pike. What seemed to be five minutes of playing this fish ,walking up and down the bank in and out of the deadbait lines the fish popped upon the top and I managed to net it first time,then I tried to pick it up.Eventually weighing the pike,which did not have much of a tail fin,it bottomed out at 27lb but I could only get pictures of it in the net as I was on my own and the others on the far bank were probably 10 mins+ walk away and for the sake of the fish I settled at that and the fish swam off slowly not really bothered.
Later I managed a tiddler at 15lb 3oz on a sprat.
When I get the photos off my phone I will attempt to post them here.

 

[terry m]

Finding it quite difficult to find a swim giving decent access to the Avon in these floods. I settled in an old favourite place at about 9.30, but dead baits were completely ignored until about 14.30 when the pencil lifted, fell flat then chugged off. Resulting in a super condition pike, weighed 11lb 11oz, which, given Remembrance Day yesterday made me smile.

 

[nottskev]

I was staring a fish-free week in the face: asthma clinic yesterday, lunch with old friend tomorrow, dentist (broken tooth) Thurs, eye specialist Friday, car booked in to have VAG diesel "fix" reversed Saturday.... I didn't like the look of all that so I nipped out to a tiny local brook for a couple of hours. The fish aren't big or numerous, and some stretches hold none, but it's one of those places where it seems miraculous they're there at all. That is, if you can get through the trees and scrub - a "swim" is where you can see the water.

The brook was well up - hardly surprising - and running quite hard. It was also way more overgrown than when I last went, and my little rod - an 8' 6" home made Bitsa (bits of this, bits of that) with home -made over-fit quivers - was just too long. At one point, my line was snagged on the branches of two separate trees while my hook, with two dendra's on, was fixed to the lining down my wellies. I'm weighing up the stacks of old rods in my spare room, wondering which is going to end its life as a truncated 5', adapted for float and quiver tip.

I did manage to catch a few. A little chub in lovely nick

And, after I'd chopped up and fed the last of my moribund dendra's which had been living on tea-leaves since an ill-fated trip to the Derwent 6 weeks ago, a dozen little perch like this

A bloke and his wife, walking a couple of terriers, stopped to chat. Usually, passers by look at you as if you are deranged or dangerous, fishing here, but this chap said "Bit of stealth fishing? Some big chub in there. We feed them kibble when it's low and you can see them". Isn't that the kind of thing that makes you feel like coming back to fish your local ditch?

 

[Pete Shears]

Pike pictures - 27lb & 15lb 3oz

 

[flightliner]

Another tidal trent visit yesterday.
After chatting to friends who live local saying it was fishable I packed my gear and was on the bank at 9-30am.
I checked out the swim I was hoping was free,, it was but the water was still over the bank as its lower there than the bank upstream and below it(*#:*).
The previous night however I took the precaution of stowing my lure gear in the car in case i found the swim unfishable.
Lucky that I did as back near the car I met up with an angler who divides his fishing into carp and luring for pike and zeds who had come down for a lure session and asked me to join him which I did.
After a cup of tea and a biscuit we walked what i thought was a mile upstream to his chosen spot and began our day with shad patterned lures.
The plan being to let them hit bottom to trundle along it and to give the occasional twitch to immitate a dead or dying/injured fish.
With no takes we began leapfrogging each other back to our cars a mile away.
I did take note of a cracking swim with a superb crease that i thought well worthy of trying later in the season or the next.
By 3-30pm both our backs were hurting and being near our cars and with dark threatening clouds looming overhead we decided to call it a day- not a bad decision as near the cars we had a cloudburst and were rather wetted, gear stowed in the boot we went our seperate ways in the rain.
Less than a mile along the road some of the villages pavements were bone dry!

 

[@Clive]

This morning was dry, sunny and a light southerly breeze. I set off with the little dog to one of the two large lakes of the Haute Charente. My wife had her exercise session in the morning and a hairdresser appointment in the afternoon. She would pick the dog up on her way back from the hairdressers. Arriving about 11:30 at this swim

Now, what you can't see is the submerged track leading towards the church. It was submerged when the dam was created. Off to the right, west, is a shallow plateau where the track used to be and to the left is a steep banking of about 4 foot down from the old road.

Can you see it now? Try putting your polaroids on.

I put a half mackerel bait on the plateau hoping a pike might be basking in the sunshine. The other rod is a float rod set up to fish the drop off to the left of the plateau.

Bait was double dead maggots. I had a half pint of Ruby red gozzers left over from a previous trip to the Charente. I also had worms and sweetcorn along with ground bait.

I started catching small roach from the outset. They were only interested in the dead gozzers but if I didn't have a bite immediately on the drop I only had to spin the handle of the Mitchell Match once or twice and it invariably stimulated a bite. I did waste a lot of time trying to find the bigger roach that I know are there using sweetcorn without any luck.

At 3:10 I walked Lily back up to the road and waited for my wife to arrive. She was a bit late due to an accident that had partially closed the road. Once the handover was done I put the deadbait rod to the other side, fishing in the old ditch of the submerged road. Then carried on catching roach.

An hour later the bobbin jumped twice and Jack turned up

Packed up at sunset and emptied the net. Around 50 - 60 small roach.

 

[Philip]

Half a Mackerel ?

....guess you didnt hear that French Pike dont take sea fish as the locals always tell me

 

[mikench]

Gordon and I arrived at exactly the same time and 30 minutes before we agreed to find the venue was deserted. We set up in familiar pegs and hoped for the best.

Fishing was slow. I persisted with the feeder in the hope of a significant bend in the rod and Gordon float fished. I was comprehensively outfished as Gordon caught regularly. He will readily admit that apart from a decent skimmer and a few nice roach around 6 -8 oz , he caught mainly tiddlers and a lot of small perch. He must have had 40 fish to my 2. I had just 2 decent skimmers on pellet. All of Gordon’s were on maggot . It was cold but didn’t feel so until a NE breeze appeared early afternoon and made it feel cold. We packed up around 2.30 having had enough. There were just 3 anglers on 4 lakes. It was still enjoyable and we enjoyed a continuous battle with a white duck with a broken wing. It received some left over bait as we packed up so I suspect it will be a friend for life. Cheers Gordon and, next week, I shall float fish.

 

[markcw]

Gordon and I arrived at exactly the same time and 30 minutes before we agreed to find the venue was deserted. We set up in familiar pegs and hoped for the best.
View attachment 28573
Fishing was slow. I persisted with the feeder in the hope of a significant bend in the rod and Gordon float fished. I was comprehensively outfished as Gordon caught regularly. He will readily admit that apart from a decent skimmer and a few nice roach around 6 -8 oz , he caught mainly tiddlers and a lot of small perch. He must have had 40 fish to my 2. I had just 2 decent skimmers on pellet. All of Gordon’s were on maggot . It was cold but didn’t feel so until a NE breeze appeared early afternoon and made it feel cold. We packed up around 2.30 having had enough. There were just 3 anglers on 4 lakes. It was still enjoyable and we enjoyed a continuous battle with a white duck with a broken wing. It received some left over bait as we packed up so I suspect it will be a friend for life. Cheers Gordon and, next week, I shall float fish.

You both have WAA cards get on Ackers Pit in Stockton Heath , brilliant water this time of year, maggot or worm will catch .
Or start fishing bread punch on the canal .

 

[flightliner]

A friend arranged to go with my wife to Chatsworth house yesterday, asking me what I would do after I dropped her off in town was easy to answer.
My gear was already in the car so I made my way to the river Don nearby.
First trot down with my old mitchell 300 and my blob float attached to my Shakespeare 11-0 foot pellet waggler rod is away and my first Greyling is in my landing net.
I had another four from it and lost two before moving downstream where I looked for some quiter water where I could try that instead of the faster current of the swim i'd just left, its often the case that Greyling like any other fish will seek out these areas in times of flooding and it did'nt take much looking for to find some bank that had been eroded by the heavy recant rains that formed a really nice back eddy, one where i could drop my baited hook just upstream of it as close to the bank as possible to let it run around into the eddying cutback.
After a short time and dropping in three or four maggots each trot down I began to catch, another 21 to be precise before things dried up on me.
I moved on further downriver and decided to fish a swim the Notts kev had used the last time he came up from Nottingham to share a day with me.
Fishing the same as the last swim upstream, very close to the edge I had a Greyling first run down in water that that was now a foot deeper than normal, trees nearby that had been pushed over by rising water, and reaching levels that standing where i was a raised hand above my head would just about reach where the river topped out.
After a few more fish I decided to try midriver and after feeding more maggots, perhaps a dozen each trot the fish came up to meet them and for fifteen minutes or so it was a fish a trot and was my best and most enjoyable period of the day.
My last fish was a brown trout, the only one of the day.
By 3-30pm i had to go to prep tea for my wife and her friend who would be home at 6pm.
Jobs done they duly arrived on time having had a good day but telling me of the parking charges at the house made me cringe, £17 midweek and almost £30 weekends.
My wife and her friend went on the bus with plenty of others!
Almost forgot, my total catch was 31 Greyling and one brown trout!

 

[nottskev]

Lovely fishing, Mick, and you've got it down to a fine art.

 

[flightliner]

You dont do so bad yourself Kev!

 

[@Clive]

Had another afternoon on the big lake where I fished on Wednesday. This time I took casters and hemp to try and find the bigger roach that evaded me before. In past years I have had some lovely red fins from this swim.

I started out with a windbeater float, bulk shot under the float, a BB to take the body under and two number 4s to sink the stem. Bait was double caster on an 18 to 2.5lb hook link. I kept firing hemp in every 5 minutes or so.

There was nothing doing for over an hour. I tried sweetcorn and small worms without a bite. So I went up the water column.

Eventually I got shelled and it was obvious that the fish were up in the water. A change of float to a long stemmed waggler with no sight bead resulted in more shelling. I fished 3 foot deep in 11 foot of water and took 5 roach on the trot. Bites were the slightest dip of the cane stemmed float. Then they changed the rules and started taking on the drop even higher. It was a numbers game. Cast count to 3 and strike. Then 4, and 5 did the job. Cast, count to 5 and fish on.

The roach however were only slightly bigger than most of the last ones were. I didn't bother with the keepnet. About 45 minutes before I planned to pack up I got the float wrapped around the rod tip and it was game over. Couldn't be bothered to start from scratch again so went back early. I think I had 12 or 13 this time.

 

[Steve Arnold]

After reading the reports put here recently by Clive I thought maybe some stillwater fishing might help my fishing depression. So I thought - why not do recon combined with husband stuff.

Sally and I took a drive to Saint Antonin-Noble-Val for a lunch in the sunshine that would light up the town centre. Eating our lunch looking at these buildings you could not be anywhere else but in the middle of "la france profonde".......

.....of course the real plan was to check-out the little lake we would pass on our way home.....

Lovely spot and I have seen a photo of a decent zander caught here by the ex-mayor of the local town of Caylus. But the ambiance was spoiled by three teenagers, with a big dog, being rather loud. They were joined by a fourth lad (+ another big dog!) and the boys were obviously smoking pot. Not sure if I want this for an afternoons fishing, even if the boys are harmless!

Take me back to my river Lot, Please!

 

[Ray Roberts]

I had a nice day on the river Itchen on the LIF stretch. The river was carrying a fair amount of water and the bailiff said that last week it was over the banks. The track along there bears this out, as it was completely flooded in places. It was a day out organised by Paul Vicary who is on the committee of my club, a local dairy farmer and all round good bloke. He has quite a few clips on youtube fishing various places. If he casts up a tree or leaves his bait at home he doesn’t edit it out, unlike some others who try to show themselves in a perfect light. Anyway, it wasn’t particularly well attended with only six anglers showing up. I drove to the far end of the fishery and crossed the rather rickety bridge. The swim I often like fishing was under water so I moved down the bank about 50yds. It was a bit dodgy getting there and the water almost flooded my wellies. Set up and started to run my float down with maggot as bait but they weren’t really having it. I had three small grayling and a couple of tiny trout. I tried the carrier that runs behind the swim but only had a couple of tiny fish. The olivette that I was using as a bulk was taken by a pike on the way in and I was bitten off. I went further downstream to a stretch where a couple of the others were fishing and had a cracking day. I had some more grayling and some cracking brown trout and sea trout, which definitely put a bend in the rod. I was using my Drennan Floatmaster rod at 15ft. I really like this rod and it’s unfortunately now out of production. It’s got an action that never seems to lock up and seems to get fish in quickly without feeling like a poker. I teamed it up with a Young’s Super-lightweight. I have no idea how many fish I caught, but it was loads. Three of us dropped into the nearest pub and had the carvery, which was excellent. Overall a very enjoyable day. The first picture is the track, lol.